3 ms·

The only point in the article which made sense to me was: "it is certainly the case that the world we are now entering is more similar to that of 100 years ago

The only point in the article which made sense to me was: "it is certainly the case that the world we are now entering is more similar to that of 100 years ago -- a world of competitive multipolarity -- than that of a quarter-century ago." I didn't really follow the rest of analogies being made; they were all sort of weasel-worded to acknowledge what a stretch they were.

cpleppert 14y ago
I'm not sure I understand the comparison being made in that sentence. Europe and the US dominated the world at that point, Japan although a force in asia had a minuscule economy compared to the west. The world is far more multipolar now than it was a hundred years ago and it will continue to be so.
- caf 14y ago
  "Europe and the US" were not one pole, they were a collection of large competing trading empires.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  Europe wasn't a unified entity in 1913.
- smacktoward 14y ago
  Europe in 1913 was a collection of feuding empires rather than a semi-unified entity like it is today. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia all had commercial and geopolitical interests that conflicted with each other, and a long history of fighting major wars in pursuit of those interests. Additionally, the United States at the time was coming out of a long period of isolation and beginning to flex her muscles in Latin America and the Pacific. The American victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War) demonstrated that the US was willing to fight established European powers, and could win. Similarly, Japan was relatively small economically, but by 1913 she had inflicted a major defeat on Russia in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War), making her another rising power.

cpleppert 14y ago

I'm not sure I understand the comparison being made in that sentence. Europe and the US dominated the world at that point, Japan although a force in asia had a minuscule economy compared to the west. The world is far more multipolar now than it was a hundred years ago and it will continue to be so.

caf 14y ago
"Europe and the US" were not one pole, they were a collection of large competing trading empires.
anigbrowl 14y ago
Europe wasn't a unified entity in 1913.
smacktoward 14y ago
Europe in 1913 was a collection of feuding empires rather than a semi-unified entity like it is today. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia all had commercial and geopolitical interests that conflicted with each other, and a long history of fighting major wars in pursuit of those interests. Additionally, the United States at the time was coming out of a long period of isolation and beginning to flex her muscles in Latin America and the Pacific. The American victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War) demonstrated that the US was willing to fight established European powers, and could win. Similarly, Japan was relatively small economically, but by 1913 she had inflicted a major defeat on Russia in the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War), making her another rising power.